18. Mineola Bound

EuEarl's mother had offered him his choice of any items his step-father Harold had in storage. " Junk from his first marriage. " she'd sniffed ," Nice enough woman, but her taste was all in her mouth ! "
Mineola was at least a 2 hour drive from Mudflap, but no-cost furnishings, he thought, made it worth a trip to his mom's house.
" So, I'll be meetin' yer mama ?", KC asked.
" Naw, lucky for us . She & Harold are in Houston for one of his bank conferences or something ! " And he added quickly, " I want her to meet you, KC. It ain't that. Just, well, my mom & me... I mean, I hardly know her myself, y'know ? I didn't live with her the first 9 years of my life !"
" Yer in yer 30's now, bud. ", KC said.
EuEarl didn't respond right away, then " You wanna come with me, or what ?"
KC realized then that he'd hit on a sore spot. He didn't know much about EuEarl's past, though a few facts he did know. EuEarl's father had been shot down
in a bombing raid over Cherbourg, France back in '43 a few weeks after EuEarl was born. His mother was hardly prepared to be a war bride, let alone a war widow, so she'd sent him shortly after his first birthday to live with his fraternal grandmother, "Granny Ella" in Louisiana . Granny Ella had only had one child of her own, his father ,so having his son EuEarl with her was an un-anticipated, but treasured gift . Those 9 years were a happy time for them both .
" Then out'a the blue, just after my tenth birthday, this woman I didn't even remember shows up, says she's my mother & that I'm gonna be living with her & her new husband in Mineola !" , EuEarl had told KC . " Less than a year later, Granny Ella died. She'd had Cancer. S'why my mama'd come & got me." EuEarl grew quiet for a while, then continued, " I hated my mom for a long time for takin' me away from Granny Ella like that. Hated Granny Ella , too, for awhile, for lettin' her. Even now, knowin' the why of it all, I cain't help feelin'...I dunno..."
KC recalled all that now . " Bud, you & me's going to Mineola, but first we's havin' a picnic on the flat !"